Will underlayment from the box stores be sufficient, brand, type, etc.?

That should be fine. 1/4" Wonderboard is all you should need, and Versabond would be the thinset. Also make sure you use thinset UNDER the cement board, as well as when setting the tile. It's not to bond one surface to the other. That's what the screws or nails will be for. It's to act as a cushion between the two layers to keep from having a paper thin void that would otherwise exist, drastically shortening the life of the floor.

Any suggestions, tips, or anything else we diy's should know before embarking on this mission?

Do you intend to use spacers, or grid the floor with chalk lines?

As for the last comment, it depends how far along you are. My sister is a project manager for a commercial company down in Connecticut, and she's every bit as good an installer as I am. But even she wouldn't try something like that. No pun intended-- this kind of work will knock the stuffin out of you, especially if you're not used to it, and being pregnant besides, it could conceiveably push you too far. It all depends on the shape you're in, and as I said already, how far along you are.

Thanks for the advice as always. You are so generous to share your talent and knowledge with "strangers."

YES, we are planning to use chalk lines and spacers.

4 months left to cook this little one in the oven:) Ok, you're making me feel like I shouldn't be so ambitious to install tile. I did wallpaper last weekend for 8 hours and it really gave me a work out with those 10 foot ceilings.

As a devout DIY-er, I'd strongly recommend using Ditra instead of cement board. The installation is a lot faster and less back-breaking--a consideration for anyone, but especially a pregnant woman. You cut it with a utility knife and no screws required. I've also developed a fondness for Laticrete brand thinset. It spreads more easily than slightly cheaper stuff I bought at HD. Our local Lowe's sells Laticrete and HD sells Ditra.

Good luck, and don't forget to post photos!

I also don't trust myself too much with proper eyesight for layout and do dry layout and then end up marking almost every tile on the floor prior to putting thinset. I cut my first pieces that I need to cut and then lay whole tiles and do cuts later. Works for me.

You should ask your doctor what she/he thinks. My doctor was OK with me doing wall tile but not floor tile at about 5 months. He felt there was too much repetitive lifting and bending in doing floor work. DH did not want me to do any of it and I finally relented and just hired someone for the whole job. It's probably worth a phone call - I was vindicated about doing the wall tile when the doctor said it was OK but DH was so unhappy about it it wasn't worth it (this is our first so he's probably even more nervous than your DH is ;) ).

I did wallpaper last weekend for 8 hours and it really gave me a work out with those 10 foot ceilings.

And that's without your belly hanging down, on your hands and knees. It's not an easy thing to do.

I also don't trust myself too much with proper eyesight for layout and do dry layout and then end up marking almost every tile on the floor prior to putting thinset. I cut my first pieces that I need to cut and then lay whole tiles and do cuts later.

I do pretty much the same thing, except that ALL my cuts are made before the first piece of tile gets set. I grid the floor out, so that spacers aren't needed (I don't care for spacers because they're machined to be exactly the same size, piece after piece, while tile is not, and that could cause you to run into trouble pretty quickly).

Once the floor is gridded out, I know exactly where every tile, whole and cut, is going to lay, and can go all the way around the room and cut it all in before I set the first piece.

bill - how do you do that grid? by hand with a marker? chalk lines?

thanks,
lisa

Do you always tape your Ditra seams? The guy I asked said you don't need to if...(can't remember what the "if" was, but it applied to me).

Do you always tape your Ditra seams? The guy I asked said you don't need to if..

you're not going to waterproof the floor.

No, I don't tape the seams. What you see in the pic is the printed logo on the Ditra (it's an older pic-- the Ditra used to have the logo on a white band when it first came out)

bill - how do you do that grid? by hand with a marker? chalk lines?

It's all chalk lines. You start by figuring out what your coursing will be. For the sake of argument I'm going to use a tile that measures 11 13/16", with a 3/16" grout joint, which would make the coursing 12". I'm also going to talk about a square layout (not diagonal, which would be a a few added steps, but basically the same thing). Once you have your coursing, make a cheat sheet with multiples of the measurement (in this case, 12, 24, 36, etc.) Start with a mark in the middle of the room and see how everything will lay out to that mark. That's the optimum-- starting from the center and working out with equal pieces. But it doesn't always work out that way, being that you're not always just hitting two walls. You want to check and see how all your cuts will work from that mark. If you find that there are cuts that'll be too small, shift your layout to work it so that you DO have good cuts at all walls. Sometimes, even that's not possible, as in when you're tiling several rooms all on the same layout. In this case, you try and lay out so that the most obvious cuts will look good. I've often said I never lay two areas out exactly the same way. That's because no two areas are exactly the same!

Anyway, once you have your starting point, snap a line. You then do the same thing in the other two directions. Once you know where you want your layout to start, you make a mark on that first line where you want to start the layout in that direction, and square off from there. How many of you remember your high school geometry? A little thing called the pythagorean theorem? It basically says that if you have a triangle with a right angle at the corner-- one leg equals 3x and the other 4x, the hypotenuse (or long side) will equal 5x. In construction, it's commonly known as the 3-4-5 method of squaring off. Take those nyumbers, or any multiple (6-8-10, 9-12-15, etc)and they'll work. Measure 3' from your mark, and make another mark. Now, measure 4' out from the line at the mark and make a mark. Then measure from the 3' mark to the 4' mark. Where the 5' mark would intersect with the 4' mark, you snap a line acroos your original mark to the "X" where those two marks cross, and you now have tow perfectly square lines. After that, it's a piece of cake. Again, using the 12" coursing, simply mark off your floor every 24" from your starting lines on each side of the room, and snap all the lines, and that'll give you your grid. once you HAVE your grid, you lay your tiles in each square as shown in the following diagram:

So long as you keep the tiles all to the same corner of the grid, you can cut all your cuts and lay them in dry, and then set your floor after all the cutting's done.

I take it I've COMPLETELY lost about 75% of you!! :-)

Ah!

Bill, thanks you for that graphic! The number if times I've tried to explain that, or have had to hand draw it, scan, and email or post it...

PRICELESS!

And to momieto4andonehalfkids? Don't but the thinset that comes in buckets. Use bagged, dry powder thinset. You can use umodified thinset to go between the subfloor and the cement board, but use modified to tile to the cement board.

For snapping lines I have an ink line, sort of like a chalk line but it inks a string instead.

Mongo

mommyto4boys,

Humor your dh on this one - put your feet up and eat some bonbons (healthy ones, of course). Ok, so you have 4 boys and your dh will need help on this, so go ahead and be the helper, and deal with your kids while dh does the down-on-the-floor stuff. I found floor tiling to be VERY hard on the back and legs. I can't even imagine bending over a baby-inside, too.

Go do more wallpaper if you must, but opt to wimp out on the floor tile.

Susan (mom of only 2)

Hi Bill,

I have a slab floor. In the open area in front of my vanity and tub, I am going to use heated mats embedded in thinset with Ditra over that. On top of that, naturally the thinset and tile. All of this will come up to the entrance of the shower, which is curbless.

My reference is to your statement above about taping Ditra seams and waterproofing? Please clarify. Of course, my Kerdi shower floor has been waterproofed. How do I handle the juncture where the two floors meet: mats/Ditra/room tile on one side; Kerdi and/shower floor tile on the other at the entrance to the curbless shower?

mommielady

Extend the Kerdi atleast 2-3" over the Ditra. In your case, I would also use Kerdi-Band over atleast the first joint between Ditra sheets from the shower entrance, just to be safe.

Thanks for all the help and I wanted to say that all went well this weekend. And who was I trying to kid....DH did 95% of the physical work! I like to call myself the supervisor and moral support coach. A lot more physical than I would have imagined. Going up and down the stairs 20 times yesterday was enough for me:) I was surprised that the underlayment took as long as it did. We didn't skimp though and I'm sure that will make for a better job.

We saved the cuts for the end!?! Now I read that Bill does that first, ummm, next time! So, we have to do the cuts, install them and then grout.

We do have another larger project...next will be the mudroom, laundry room, and 1/2 bath. This weekend was our "trial" in the kids' bath to gain confidence & experience for more of a "main" area. So, I think we will be more prepared about the precuts, chalk lines, etc.

So moving onto the next project, the tile is natural slate. I've heard that it is a little trickier to install. Thus far I have been told to clean the tile and install it before sealing? Also, I have been told that it will need to be "scratched" before it is installed? And I was wondering about the natural varying levels of the tile, do you level it by your eye as well as able or are there other "rules" to follow?

Thanks Bill and all of you for making DIY projects much easier. The time and help you give others is wonderful...you are appreciated!!

You're very welcome. :-)

You do understand the quid pro quo here, don't you? If you take away advice you have to post photos as your payback.

We're waiting.....:-)

As they say over at John Bridge's, WE LIKE PICHERS!!

:-)

I'll get pictures just ASAP...life here has been beyond CRAZY. We have to move out of our rental home by the end of April and the new home is well....not close to being ready. Also, I'll have to sneak pictures before the tile is finished. DH hates people viewing his "works in progress!"

We have to move out of our rental home by the end of April and the new home is well....not close to being ready.

Tell me about it. The place where I'm working right now (linked below)-- I just started working on the tile, along with several other crews. On the website, they say their grand reopening will be June 28th, but they're taking limited reservations for Memorial Day weekend, and I just don't see it happening. I have a feeling that I may be scarce in here for a while (and anyplace else, OTHER than on site, for that matter!)

Here is a link that might be useful: Inn by the Sea